Albany Herald: Award-winning journalist Celeste Headlee, center, speaks with Karen Baynes-Dunning, right, as well as several Albany State University students Monday (Photo: Chauntel Powell)

Chauntel Powell

Updated Apr 18, 2016

ALBANY — Albany State University
welcomed award-winning journalist Celeste Headlee on campus Monday.
Headlee was the first to speak in ASU’s Community Speaker Series, and
her segment was entitled “Through the Glass Ceiling: Women and
Leadership.”

Headlee is the host of the Georgia Public
Broadcasting (GPB) daily news talk show “On Second Thought.” She has
also appeared on NPR, PBS World, CNN, BBC and other international
networks. Headlee is author of the book “Heard Mentality: An A to Z
Guide to Taking Your Radio Show or Podcast from Idea to Hit.”

In
front of a packed auditorium in ASU’s James Pendergrast Memorial
Library, Headlee had a very candid conversation with students about the
importance of hard work, especially in the early stages of one’s career,
as well as the harsh reality of gender equality in the work place.

Headlee is also a classically trained soprano and the granddaughter
of notable black composer William Grant Still. She told the ASU audience
that music was actually her first love but journalism pays the bills.
Headlee has performed her grandfather’s music in concerts and recitals,
across the country for more than 15 years and has given lectures on his
music for high schools and universities.

She is also the editor of
the second edition of the book “William Grant Still and the Fusion of
Cultures in American Music,” for which she compiled the first complete
thematic catalog of Still’s works.